Ava Bankowski
Ava Bankowski is a daughter of Hades. History While Ava was born and raised in Michigan, her mother Diane Bankowski was a second generation immigrant with both parents hailing from Poland. Her mother eventually caught the attention of Hades despite being a regular librarian, and this led to Ava being born. Because her mother was fluent in the language, her mother taught her Polish alongside English as a child, and Ava's natural knack for learning other languages prompted her to take online courses in Spanish, Italian, and French throughout her life. Ava will slip into Polish accidentally when she's particularly emotional, and she has been known to insult people in Polish on a fairly regular basis. Because her mother was a librarian, Ava grew up around books yet she seldom read them, preferring to doodle on them with crayons. Although this childhood pastime never went anywhere, she still tends to doodle on things when she's bored. Being a child of Hades, Ava's scent was much stronger than most demigods, so consequently she switched schools often. At the age of nine, she was eventually attacked by a hellhound and brought to Camp Half-Blood by an older demigod who had been nearby at the time. Until she was fourteen and decided to attend a nearby high school, she stayed at Camp Half-Blood year round. When Ava turns eighteen, she decides she wants to consider a life outside of The Questers and the retrictions of Camp Half Blood so she applies to the University of Chicago. Upon high school graduation, she moves out of state and attends with the intention of having an undeclared major, but she ends up enrolling in physics out of spite towards the people who claimed she was unintelligent. After realizing she is very talented in the course and geniunely enjoys it, she decides to major in the course. After graduating college, Ava ends up at various different odd jobs despite theoretically being able to go into multiple fields thanks to her physics degree. She ends up going some work for Olympus to make ends meet during this time after making her peace with Zack's death, and eventually ends up traveling the world via both shadow-travel and more conventional means. While working for Olympus, when she is twenty-nine she saves a seven-year-old son of Demeter named Liam who she brings to Camp Half-Blood. Initially, she assumes he will be taken care of there or given to an older demigod who will take him, but she later decides to adopt him as her son. Physical Appearance Ava has straight, golden brown hair which, when she was younger, kept short in order to fit her stereotypical tomboy persona. When she is thirteen, she finally starts growing it out and she ends up keeping it midway down her back all her life. She has gray eyes that oftentimes look blue because of the lighting, and up until she's fifteen she wears dark clothes in layers. Afterwards, she starts experimenting with tanktops, skirts, and dresses once she becomes more confident in her appearance. She is of average height. She has three scars on her right hip from a hellhound attack that occured when she was fourteen, and she has a mole underneath her left eye. She is more muscular than most people, but she is not overly toned like the demigod children of Ares. She has a long face with high cheekbones, and her ears are slightly pointed and noticeably stick out. Personality Ava is incredibly stubborn, sarcastic, and pessimistic. She likes teasing the people she's closest to, especially Michael Johnson, but she never means anything malicious by it. She's fiercely loyal towards her friends and has probably recklessly tried to protect all of them at one point, and more than once she has punched someone because they insulted one of the members of tQ. She has a relatively sharp tongue, and she has a tendency to show off in fights when using her powers. Her arrogance tends to bleed into casual conversation as well, although when she grows older she tries to fix this. Despite everything, she is relatively nice to people in her own way. If she doesn't know someone she doesn't go out of her way to be rude towards them unless they show her she should be, and she has a tendency to show new campers around camp if it's obvious they are lost and confused. She is very academically smart, too, but she rarely shows this. She's a fairly compassionate person who occasionally tries to make people feel more welcome, and she won't hesitate to defend someone she doesn't know if they're being picking on by someone else. She's good with kids yet awful with animals. Fatal Flaws Grudges She tends to take things to heart when she or someone she cares is insulted, and this quickly manifests into a grudge that she wouldn't lift even if her life depended on it. She rarely lets her grudges go due to pride, so this inhibits her from allying herself with people even if it means stopping something. Arrogance Fighting Style/Weapons While Ava relies heavily on her throwing knives in a fight, she is also very skilled with her stygian iron sword. She tends to be light on her feet, and while she can dodge attacks easily she tends to gravitate towards offense in an actual fight. If she's in a bind, she can use her sword to summon skeletal warriors to aid her or her allies, but she's been known to summon them just to show off and display her powers as well. Powers *'Death Sense' **She can tell when people close to her, both literally and figuratively, have died via a ringing in her ears similar to tinnitus but not quite. In Ava's own words, it sounds like a church bell. *'Shadow travel' **Shadow travel enables her to travel great or short distances by "teleporting" using the shadows. The longer the distance, the more tired she becomes while the shorter the distance the less tired she will be. If she takes several people with her, or she transports everyone inside of some sort of enclosure, she will tire at a much faster rate. Aside from quests and as a substitute for other transportation, she uses this to prank people. **Because she uses practically every day, she has the most experience using it out of all her abilities. At age fifteen, she is able to travel long distances and only become somewhat tired. *'Umbrakinesis ' **This ability enables her to cloak herself within the shadows so she remains unseen and unheard. This takes a lot of energy to use because she must concentrate constantly or she will immediately become visible. She is known to overexert herself using this and gets extreme bloodbleeds. She only uses this during quests, but occasionally she will use it during full-scale battles. *'Necromancy ' **This is used solely for fights and, along with shadow traveling, she uses this power the most. **At age seventeen, she has total control over this since she uses it so frequently. **Aside from raising undead warriors, she has also made undead animals rise from the ground on accident. **She can freely communicate with ghosts and see them clearly. It is also possible that she can banish souls to the Underworld if she wanted, but she has never cared to test this out. *'Geokinesis ' **When she is seventeen, she finally begins to practice this power and she quickly realizes that it comes naturally to her. After a year and a half of practicing, she is able to create large crevices underneath someone to send them directly to the Underworld. She is also capable of creating walls of earth and projectiles from compressed earth. Despite her skill with this ability, it drains her energy much more faster so she uses it only when necessary. *'Radiates death' **This isn't a power, exactly, but more of a side effect of being a child of Hades. Because she radiates death, grass tends to die at her feet when she's particularly angry. Weaknesses/Fears Aquaphobia Aerophobia Relationships Family Hades Because Hades never acknowledged her existence aside from her claiming, she dislikes him enough to hold a grudge against him. While she takes pride in the abilities given to her because of her parentage, she dislikes being associated with Hades and rarely, if ever, sleeps in the Hades cabin at CHB. Because Hades rarely acknowledges her, she holds immense self-lothing for herself because she believes she isn't good enough for him to consider a daughter. This tends to manifest when she trains with her abilities to an unhealthy extent. Diane Bankowski Ava loves her mother dearly, and although they rarely get to see either other Ava will often Iris Message her in The Questers' HQ (much to the annoyance of anyone who is in the room). Her mother constantly worries for her safety which leads to Ava leaving out the gory details when she updates her on everything happening. During the holidays, Ava will always visit her, and when she adopts Liam she brings him around to see her mother whenever she can. Jack Bankowski Jack Bankowski is Ava's mortal uncle who, until she is eighteen and willingly reaches out to him, she never officially meets. Jack and her mother, from what Ava gathered prior to meeting him, had a falling out in their twenties after their parents died and never actually reconciled. Ava likes her uncle since they have similar personalities and wishes she had been able to spend more time with him as a child. As a result, she brings Liam over to visit him almost as often as her mother. Neither he nor his children know of her demigod status, but regardless of the fact Ava has still brought Nat over to meet them. Clara and Carlos Bankowski Clara and Carlos are Ava's mortal twin cousins who, although her mother forbade any contact with her uncle, she knows from a young age because her aunt Jacinta always brought them on her visits to her sister-in-law. They are older than Ava by two years which they constantly remind her of. They inevitably start drifting apart because of Ava's demigod status shortly after she reconnects with them when she is eighteen. Jacinta Bankowski (nee Reyes) Despite her mother refusing Ava contact with her uncle, she knew her aunt pratically since birth and always got along well with her. As Ava grew older, however, they stopped keeping in contact because Jacinta and Diane started having disagreements about Jack and whether or not Ava should have any contact with him. Once Ava is eighteen, she reconnects with her aunt upon meeting her uncle for the first time. Arcana Phan Matt Parker Liam Bankowski ava loves her son unconditionally and teaches him sick fighting maneuvers when he's old enough. she teaches him polish, then spanish, when he expresses an interest in learning the languages. Friends Zack Johnson Ava and Zack met prior to the formation of The Questers, and during The Quester's first unofficial quest she developed a crush on him. After finding Michael, the two started dating and had a good relationship until Ava started questioning her sexuality and romantic orientation. She started becoming more closed off, and eventually she broke up with him after coming to the conclusion she was aromantic and asexual. After a few awkward weeks, the two started to rebuild their friendship even stronger. Ava considered him her best friend and loved him dearly; she was devastated by his death in Above the Most Broken Clouds to the point where she completely distanced herself from her demigod life for several years. Kyra Musika Out of TQ, Ava met Kyra last, but because they have similiar personalities they are initially on better terms than the other members. Ava tends to drag Kyra into her own mischief, although Kyra gives off the impression that she is willingly brought into it, which eventually leads to Kyra getting into trouble. Despite this, they don't get into many arguments save for the occasional banter. After Zack's death, they end up drifting apart mostly because of Ava's ghosts. Natalie Cole Out of all tQ, Ava met Natalie first but it wasn't until they helped form The Questers together that they really interacted. Despite this, their relationship has always been a little disconnected because of their contrasting personalities. Although Natalie tends to chide Ava's grating personality, when the situation calls for it they trust each other immensely. Later in their teenage years, they become better friends and this persists. Nat is the only one out of TQ who Ava stays close with in the years after Zack's death and prior to her acceptance of it. Michael Johnson While they have a good relationship involving reading in TQ HQ together and shopping for books, Ava constantly teases Michael. Even so, she's incredibly protective of him and won't hesitant to punch someone in the face because they insulted or injured him. Annie Anitho Despite the unofficial tension between The Questers and The Heroes Organization and Ava and Annie's contrasting personalities, they are very good friends. Annie was among the first people Ava went to when she realized she might be aromantic and asexual. Maya Arslan Maya and Ava are on very good terms, and she considers Maya to be a close friend. Other Demigods Cal She dislikes Cal. Rachel Hughes Although Rachel and Ava are far from best friends, there is no animosity between the two and they're fairly civil with each other. Zoe Johnson Ava has mixed feelings towards Zoe. Lucian Lohse Ava does not care for him. Trivia *She is left handed. Category:Original Character Category:Demigods Category:The Questers (OC Club) Category:Children of Hades Category:Greek Demigod Category:Leafwhisker Category:Females Category:Character